


you make me rise when i fall

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Series: tumblr prompts/ask game answers [18]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Acts Like a Cat, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Guardian Adrien Agreste, Guardian Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Plagg Cares (Miraculous Ladybug), Podfic Welcome, Post Miracle Queen, Protective Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Protective Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Protective Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), Self-Esteem Issues, Stolen Kiss, Supportive Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug), Tikki Cares, Tumblr Prompt, gabriel agrestes a+ parenting, though he hasn't quite accepted that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22869709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: After Hero's Day, Ladybug and Chat Noir had mostly gone back to their routines. That's their plan after Miracle Queen, too.It doesn't work for very long.  It doesn't work for much longer than about half a day.It feels like they can barely finish one fight before the next one's already on them, and they don't have any allies anymore.  Hawkmoth knows he has an advantage now and he's pressing it as hard as he can.But Ladybug and Chat Noir do still have the same solid foundation they've always had, one that Hawkmoth's never truly succeeded at taking away from them.They still have each other, and with each other they're willing to face the whole world.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: tumblr prompts/ask game answers [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1478756
Comments: 70
Kudos: 572





	you make me rise when i fall

**Author's Note:**

> written for an anonymous tumblr prompt: 'stolen kiss' and dragonbug/chat noir? (bonus points for dragonbug being flirty and chat noir being very flustered)
> 
> i have learned that i have SOME TROUBLE writing about kissing

After Hero's Day, Ladybug and Chat Noir had mostly gone back to their routines. That's their plan after Miracle Queen, too.

It doesn't work for very long.

It doesn't work for much longer than about half a day.

Hawkmoth very obviously has plans of his own.

Adrien already hasn't slept well in a long time, but over the past week he's barely had time to sleep at all. He definitely hasn't made it through an entire class, because if he isn't off trapped in a battle somewhere he's struggling to keep his eyes open and his battered attention on the lesson instead of on any hint of another akuma. It's only the fact that no one else is making it through their classes uninterrupted either that's saving his grades.

It feels like they can barely finish one fight before the next one's already on them.

Sometimes he thinks that's true, although by now the fights and akuma and amok are all blurring together anyway. He's still faintly fairly sure that sometimes the amok are attacking them right as Ladybug's cleansing the akuma, and that sometimes there's another akuma alert before they've finished with the amok, and when he asks her Ladybug confirms that she thinks so too. 

The amok and akuma have so often been simultaneous before now. These staggered attacks are just as deliberate as their back to back (to back to back) battles with M. Ramier were in the past. 

They can't keep fighting like this forever. Hawkmoth and Mayura don't have to show up to these battles in person, and even if they did they'd be able to switch off- Ladybug and Chat Noir _have_ to be there, and their enemies know it. 

Adrien wants to reassure Ladybug that it's really her they need, that if something happens to him she'll be okay without him, but he doesn't want it to come across as his being _unwilling_ to help because that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Besides, not only has Plagg been very vocal about how neither of them will, in fact, 'be okay' if anything happens to Adrien, _Tikki_ has actually shown up and promised him the same thing. Adrien hadn't known that Tikki could be terrifying, but the little kwami had been very, very insistent- and very precise about her meaning. 

"I would never want her to have to do this alone," Adrien had told his partner's kwami, as he tried not to look around too much in case Ladybug was nearby and untransformed.

"She won't be able to do this _without you_ ," Tikki had emphasized, flickering up to press hard against his shoulder on 'you.' " _You_ , Chat, she needs you specifically, not anyone else. You are not replaceable; you can't just mean that you'd find her other allies, Chat. It has to be _you_."

Adrien still has trouble believing that, no matter how often he hears it. But hearing it from Ladybug's kwami- Ladybug's kwami, who knows Ladybug better than anyone, who knows him like his partner knows him, his partner who knows him better than anyone else ever has or ever could except for his _own_ kwami-

Adrien knows he'd stared at Tikki in a daze at first, fighting back the pleased rumble that wanted to roll through more out of habit than an actual desire to stop it. He doubts Tikki would have minded any more than Plagg does. 

"It has to be you," Tikki had repeated, softly, lighting on his shoulder and then nuzzling against his neck in a way that really _had_ drawn a full-throated purr out of him. "You're her partner." 

It helps, to know that Tikki thinks that. 

But-

But Adrien's not enough for Ladybug, not anymore. They need allies. They need help.

Even worse than the endless chain of fights is that they have no one left to _ask_ for help.

Hawkmoth knows just who their allies are now, which means that with Master Fu gone as well Chat Noir and Ladybug don't have any allies _left,_ and Hawkmoth and Mayura have been taking full advantage of that knowledge.

Even when Chat Noir and Ladybug only have to fight one akumatised enemy at a time and not both a villain _and_ an amok, the akuma on their own have been increasingly difficult. Adrien's privately kind of terrified that if Hawkmoth had started at this level, he'd have won.

He thinks he understands far better now just why he and Ladybug have paired Miraculous. Fighting this war on two fronts is proving a whole lot harder, even with as much as they've improved since the beginning. 

"Sorry." The familiar faint undercurrent of exhaustion in Ladybug's voice draws Adrien back to the here and now. "I know this is the only break we've really had. But, well-" She gestures limply between them. "It _is_ the only break we've really had."

Chat Noir squints at the Miracle Box, resisting the urge to poke at it with one claw. He doesn't think Ladybug _or_ their kwami are likely to appreciate that. "Do you think it's safe to bring it out here?" Adrien's way too aware that Hawkmoth and Mayura could attack at any moment, and if _he_ feels too aware then Ladybug was probably worrying well before he was. 

"No, I don't think it's safe at all." Ladybug shifts in place and huffs through her nose, her face screwing up into a frustrated expression as she hunches over her crossed legs- over the Miracle Box, closer to where Adrien is leaning back towards her in turn. "Nothing's felt safe all week, kitty."

The Miracle Box is resting on the floor between the two of them, glittering faintly in the stray bits of light that still reach their hiding place.

It's not the best hiding place.

They're both huddled as far back as they can get in an empty apartment, inside a building that's been slated for destruction for months. By now they both suspect whoever is supposed to demolish the place has been hoping it doesn't come back upright after a Miraculous Cure one day. Since it's the most secure spot they have, and they're already wary of using it enough that anyone else can find them, Adrien is hoping really hard that no one ever does follow through on that demolition.

With his kind of luck, if they ever do follow up the building's likely to come down on him and his partner. 

"My room's never been very safe either," Ladybug admits, pained. "I can't guarantee no one can get in there when I'm not home. It's happened before. _You've_ been-" She stops and swallows back whatever she's about to say, closing her eyes and opening them again. "I don't know where to keep it. I didn't know if maybe you had anywhere to keep it."

Adrien's twitching tail stills, frozen by the flash of fear he feels at her words. He tells himself he's worrying for nothing, that he knows her better than that, but he still can't keep back his retort. "Bit early to be retiring, isn't it?"

Ladybug's not fooled by his joking tone, going by her raised eyebrows. "He chose us both, kitty, I'm not going anywhere."

Adrien swallows, but it doesn't help with the lump in his throat. " _You're_ the Guardian."

"Sure," Ladybug says dryly. "Which means _I_ get to pick any new Guardians. I've never done any of this alone, Chat, I'm not starting now. I don't know if there's some official way to make you a Guardian too without losing my memory, but as far as I'm concerned you _are_ one."

This isn't the first time she's said as much, but Adrien's still struggling to convince himself that she means it. 

"Thanks for the faith, LB. You know I'll help however you need me to. But, uh-" He waves, vaguely, before hunching over a little more himself. " _I'm_ kinda concerned about that memory failsafe thing? Did you know about that, before he-"

They both wince. Adrien doesn't bother to finish his sentence.

"No, or I'd have had a few follow up questions." Ladybug pauses. "A lot of follow up questions. But according to Wayzz it doesn't affect me unless I relinquish being a Guardian, anyway. Which is another reason I haven't _asked_ -you, asked-you, but- wills exist, kitty, and unless that's suddenly relevant I'm not planning on giving up anything I don't have to. Not the Miracle Box, or our kwami, and definitely not you." Her voice drops, becomes fierce and protective in a way that makes him shiver involuntarily. _"_ Never you, you're my _partner_."

Adrien shifts, and the lump in his throat seems bigger. He does not want to think about their wills (which they do actually sort of have by now, even if theirs are less official documents and more 'stuff we agreed to entrust to each other,' but still), but he can't deny it's a relief to realise he doesn't have to worry about the Guardian ever taking Plagg back again. That's not something Ladybug would ever do to them.

He's still fighting back the rush of heat creeping up his collar to spread over his face at Ladybug's adamant conviction that she isn't willing to give up _him_ , either. It's a given that he feels that way about her, but he has trouble, sometimes, believing that she feels at all like that about him.

She's not in love with him like he is with her. She does love him, though, and she's been making that more and more clear recently.

He's needed to hear it more and more often. Father's barely left his atelier for the past week, and Nathalie's been ill for almost as long- ill enough that the Gorilla's been the one to give Adrien his schedule, which has never happened before. Adrien can't help but be a little relieved, because the Gorilla is leaving a whole lot more free time in that schedule than Nathalie ever did, but that doesn't mean he's not worried about Nathalie.

But with her sick and Father busy, the mansion has been so silent and oppressive that when Ladybug suggested they extend some of their patrols and try to train more Adrien had leapt at the chance.

Even though there have been so many akuma that they barely have free time left as it is. Even though sometimes patrol has only run longer because they've set aside part of it to take turns trying to get some sleep, because sleeping through the night in their own beds has become an impossibility. Sleeping somewhere they know is safe with their partner standing guard is the only way either of them have been able to catch any more than quick catnaps.

And even Chat Noir can't subsist on nothing but catnaps for very long.

But they do each need the other to keep watch over them while they sleep, or they _won't_ sleep. Hawkmoth catching one of them alone has always been dangerous. Hawkmoth and Mayura catching one of them alone, without the other, now when they haven't been run this ragged since M. Ramier started making a few more human friends along with his birds-

There have been too many close calls already this week.

Exhaustion isn't the only reason Ladybug and Chat Noir have been staying together so much.

At least Adrien hasn't had to put quite as much effort into sneaking out. Right now he thinks he might even be able to get away with just leaving through the front door- with the Gorilla's leniency over the past week and his friend's schedules all disrupted by the attacks as much as anyone else, no one's been checking on him regularly enough to notice. 

(Save Kagami, and he wishes he could tell her because he doesn't want her to think he's ignoring her. He doesn't want to hurt her, and that's a kind of hurt Adrien knows all too well. It does help a little, though, that he knows if he _could_ tell her she'd tell him to put the city first.

It helps a little. He's still seen the signs of hurt and anger in Kagami in the few brief snatches of time they've had for fencing. He's seen the quickly hidden expressions when she comes to talk to him and he has to make some terrible excuse and find the nearest exit, because he has to go and fight.

He doesn't know what to do about Kagami. Every option he has will hurt her- will hurt them both).

"Chat Noir," Ladybug says, drawing his wandering attention back to her like a-

Like a moth to a flame, although no one in Paris uses that idiom much anymore.

"Hey. Us against the world, right, Chat?" Ladybug reaches out and wraps both her hands around both of his, pulling him out of his thoughts again. Her smile softens around the edges, going warm and fuzzy and drawing him in further. 

If he's a moth to her flame then he's one flying in dizzying circles, long since close enough to burn, and his ears twitch towards his Lady attentively as she continues.

The growing shadows in her eyes haven't diminished her smile any. "Kitty, you already know it's you I'd trust with everything. If anything ever did happen to me, it's you I trust to make things right, minou. Always."

Adrien beams back at her, feeling the emotion behind it grow more genuine the longer he holds the expression. He knows, now, just how much she means it when she says she trusts him. She's made it as clear as she can, sat him down and talked him through it, pulled up videos and photos and posts on the Ladyblog and tried and tried and _tried_ to prove to him that she trusts him as completely as he does her.

He's still not sure she does trust him on quite that level. He's still scared of just how deeply he trusts her. He isn't sure he _wants_ her to trust him like he does her.

But it helps him to hear her say it and she knows it. She's said it to him more and more often since she'd first figured out that it _does_ help him to hear her say it. 

It doesn't hurt that she'd commed him the first night she was officially the Guardian, asked him to meet up, and told him to ask anything he wanted to know- and that she'd _answered_ him, when he had started asking questions, haltingly at first and then with increasing confidence as she either gave him a response or told him she didn't know herself.

(Master Fu never had been very good about answering Adrien's questions, and now he'll never know why).

It doesn't hurt that he knows she's reconsidering the identity rule.

He'd stayed away from asking any identifying questions that first night, not willing to take that risk, but she'd glanced at him and away as she skirted the edges of more hints than she would ever have let slip before.

Keeping their identities secret hadn't saved any of the other Miraculous holders, and now the only guidance the two of them have left is the kwami. Wayzz is by far the most helpful, though all of the others have been eager to share information too, but for all that Adrien and Ladybug don't want to imagine their lives without their kwami anymore nothing can change the fact that the kwami just aren't _human._ They don't have the same frames of reference. Most of the time, the kwami see the world through an entirely different lens than the two of them do.

And on top of that, it's been turning out that there's a surprising amount the kwami genuinely don't know.

Some of it is- was- considered Guardian knowledge, like the recipes for their power ups. Several of the kwami, like Barkk and Longg, have also admitted that although they know they have more abilities they themselves don't know how to unlock them.

Ladybug had been just as taken aback by that as Adrien still is. They're already unanimous in that they are _not_ going to keep any information from their kwami, although there are some things, like the way Wayzz and Tikki both adamantly refuse to learn those recipes, that they're also going to respect. If the kwami don't want to know something they aren't going to force them. Besides, Wayzz does still have a better idea than they do as far as _why_ certain rules exist.

Wayzz admitted to them that that identity rule has never been a constant.

And it's their turn to decide what the rules are.

Ladybug sighs and straightens a bit more, recapturing his attention. "Anyway, kitty, we agreed we'd get some training in." She looks speculatively at the Miracle Box. "I'm still not sure where we should hide this, though. I _would_ have tried to hide it with one of the other heroes, but-" She winces.

"We could choose other allies," Adrien ventures, but uncertainly. He doesn't like picturing new allies with their old allies' Miraculous any more than he does trying to imagine one of Plagg's future Black Cats.

"We _should_ ," Ladybug mutters, pressing one hand to her forehead and listing against the wall, leaning back so that her feet tangle further with his. "But I chose them for a reason." She shoots him an apologetic look. "But it is definitely your turn to choose. If you think that's what we need to do next, Chat, then take the ones you need." She nods down at the Miracle Box.

Adrien's ears twitch back at the thought. He knows he straightened at the show of trust, because he saw a shadow pass over Ladybug's face when he did, but he doesn't think he can accept it- for more reasons than his own self doubt, this time. "There's a few other people I would trust... but the only other person I'd have picked this quickly is Marinette, and you chose her, too. And Adrien," he adds hastily, hoping it comes off as an afterthought. Ladybug's looking at the Box and not him anyway.

There are still others they could choose. There's Nathaniel, who still draws himself as a hero, and Marc with him. There's Rose, whose biggest weakness is putting herself in danger to help others- not exactly something Adrien can call her out on. There's Juleka, whose fears have nothing to do with battles or monsters, and that leads him to Mylene but Mylene-

He doesn't think Mylene would want to fight, and he wouldn't want her to feel like she has to.

That goes for Ivan too, as much of an asset as Adrien thinks Ivan would be. Even now that they're bandmates (in theory, anyway) Adrien doesn't know Ivan as well as he'd like, but he doesn't think Ivan has any more desire to be involved in battles than Mylene does.

(Adrien doesn't realise for too long just why those were his first people- doesn't realise that by now, he thinks maybe theirs aren't the only Miraculous that _should_ be paired).

Sabrina is too close to Chloé to take the risk, and Alix- Alix is her own category.

And then there's that last, uncomfortable thought: Hawkmoth already targets their class with alarming frequency. Now that he knows who all the other Miraculous holders have been, choosing more classmates is too big a hint.

"I don't know who else to choose," Adrien admits painfully, ducking his head and pulling his tail into his lap. They're sitting so close that the buckle taps against both Ladybug's leg and his own as he fiddles with the end of the belt.

"I _want_ to say we just take refuge in audacity and give them to the same people over again. But Chloé knows who they all are, too, and I don't want to put anyone in danger. More danger." Ladybug hesitates, then reaches slowly towards the Miracle Box. "We need a better solution, but... there are other options."

She holds up the Dragon Miraculous and smiles grimly as Longg flashes into being.

"We can't keep doing that," Adrien protests, but faintly, his eyes drawn to the self-satisfied smirk on Longg's face that's giving him even more reservations. It's strange to be the one with reservations. " _You_ can't keep doing that."

"If it's the route we're going, I can't keep doing it alone," Ladybug corrects, before swiftly clipping on the choker and throwing out her hands. "Longg, Tikki- unify!"

Adrien swallows, hard, at the sight of her transformation. Even though she isn't revealing anything to him when she already has an active Miraculous, there's always something special about actually seeing her transform.

Dragonbug gets to her feet, careful of the Miracle Box, and offers him a hand up. "Come on, kitty, we really are going to need that practise." Her smile turns soft again, edged with doubt in a way Adrien's long since learned to recognise. "I'd never make you do it, Chat, it's okay if you really don't want to. But I do think this is going to be our best bet, until-" She hesitates. "Until.... we sort things out a little more."

And Adrien thinks he knows what she means by that, but he's not _sure_.

So many of the other heroes were his classmates. He does know, now that he can follow the threads all the way to their conclusions, that they _were_ all chosen when it was their own friends or family in danger- even Luka, in the end. (They still don't entirely understand what happened with Kim, except that it hadn't been either one of them). It could be nothing more than that.

It could be a coincidence that they're all friends and classmates of his.

It could be a coincidence that Aspik isn't the _only_ hero who hadn't answered Chloé's call- and since they both know who Bunnyx is, there are very narrow options.

It doesn't feel like a coincidence.

Adrien takes Dragonbug's hand, letting her pull him to his feet, and they steady each other out of habit as they turn towards the window.

"The Miracle Box," Adrien says, low, even as they both glance out into the night and he feels a familiar ache spread through him. He'd have thought he'd feel it less, now, when they've been out fighting so constantly, when they've been together so much, but it's never gone away. It's never even lessened. Adrien _wants_ to be out there in the dark, racing Ladybug along the rooftops. He wants to throw himself into being Chat Noir just as much as ever.

The rooftop run has never stopped feeling like freedom, like doors unlocking for the first time, like opening his window to all the world laid out at his feet. His Miraculous is just as heady and addictive as it was that first time he transformed.

Ladybug won't ask him to give his ring back. She would never ask that of him. Feast already taught Adrien just how scared he is of losing Plagg, but it's not until now that he knows he _won't_ that he's realised how constant that fear has been. It's insidious, snaking through him at odd times and jerking him to wakefulness in the middle of the night just to check that Plagg is still there.

Even before the akuma and amok had destroyed all of his and Ladybug's attempts to sleep through a night, Adrien's nights had not been restful.

Dragonbug sighs, imperceptible but for the way she shifts at his side. "We can't bring the box with us. I think here for now is the best we can do." She lets go of Adrien, though, and he turns with her as she kneels beside the box long enough to lift out one more Miraculous.

Wayzz shakes his head, then the rest of himself, looking a bit dazed until he spots them.

There's a second where he brightens before fading again, and Adrien winces in tandem with his partner at the way the kwami droops.

Wayzz does that every time, like it always takes him a moment too long to remember that they aren't Master Fu. That they aren't his chosen.

They don't know exactly how long Wayzz and Master Fu were partnered. Ladybug's admitted that it feels insensitive to ask, and Adrien's not sure he wants to know the answer. They know it was long enough that Wayzz is still taking the loss hard. They don't need to know more than that.

"Wayzz?" Dragonbug asks, gently, and Wayzz looks up at her but doesn't say anything. He doesn't even comment on her combined Miraculous. "Wayzz, would you do us a favour and guard the Miracle Box until we both get back? We won't be-" Dragonbug seems to stumble over her words a moment, before recovering. "I won't be _long_ , and no one's ever found us here, but I would feel better if you kept watch. We don't have a safer place, right at the moment."

It's painful to see the way Wayzz straightens immediately, to hear the gratitude that colours his voice. "Of course, young masters. I'll guard it with my life."

"Not with your life, Wayzz, you come get us if there's that much danger," Dragonbug says, still in that gentle tone. "And you don't have to call us that."

Adrien holds in a sigh, not wanting the turtle kwami to take it the wrong way. They've been telling Wayzz that all week and it hasn't stopped him.

Adrien wants Nino to have the Turtle Miraculous again for a number of reasons, but one of the glaring ones is Wayzz himself. Adrien and Ladybug are still on a steep learning curve with the Miracle Box and the kwami, and while Wayzz has been massively helpful there are still things he won't answer, but they've had one long-held suspicion confirmed.

Kwami _do_ bond with their chosen.

They were already sure about Plagg and Tikki, even if the kwami themselves insist that they don't. Plagg is too possessive and Tikki too protective to think otherwise.

That kind of bond does take time, or it seems to; Longg isn't as bothered that he hasn't seen Kagami recently, and Sass is fairy equally willing to assist Luka or Adrien himself, and Xuppu is kind of hard to follow sometimes but although they definitely like Kim they don't seem upset about losing him. (And Fluff is- they don't talk about Fluff).

But Wayzz is taking losing Fu _hard_. And-

Adrien can't imagine asking Wayzz to take on a third chosen so quickly. He doesn't want to do that to Wayzz.

Adrien and Ladybug could, technically, give their Miraculous over to new heroes now. If they wanted to. It's their decision now, or it's hers, at least. (Adrien knows what she keeps telling him, but really, Ladybug is the Guardian. Adrien wasn't chosen for that).

But Plagg won't give Adrien up, and Adrien doesn't want to _be_ given up.

He doesn't know what kind of conversations Tikki and Ladybug have had about it but he knows they aren't willing to give each other up either.

Most of that is fierce attachment, but part of it is practical. Hawkmoth and Mayura are bringing a lot more power down on them now than they ever have before, and switching out for less experienced heroes would be handing their enemies a win. Even with their own experience, Adrien and Ladybug have had too many close calls and the battle's only been getting harder.

New heroes wouldn't have their experience.

New heroes wouldn't have each other the way they have each other.

He knows he's not the only one who's considered those particular combinations of classmates for Miraculous. They've talked about it.

By now they have considered deliberately pairing the other Miraculous to give out again, and Adrien had tentatively suggested Ivan and Mylene at almost the same time as Ladybug had suggested Rose and Juleka. Once Ladybug had reluctantly explained that she thinks Mylene was more than a little traumatised by that very first akuma attack, and she thinks that rules out Ivan by extension, Adrien had brought up Marc and Nathaniel.

By then they'd both given each other a few searching looks, before another akuma had changed the subject for them.

The two of them had had a learning curve. Adrien is distantly aware of that, sometimes, even though it seems impossible now to think there was ever a time when they weren't partners. They can see the way they've learned and grown when they're reviewing old fights on the Ladyblog and discussing different strategies, additional options, things they could have done better.

They'd learned each other so naturally that they hadn't known they were doing it. It felt like they were living in sync from the start, like they'd always known each other and were only picking back up where they'd left off.

Ladybug thinks that part is Plagg and Tikki. Adrien's made a few (more than a few) not-entirely-jokes about soulmates, but Ladybug and Plagg had both shot those down. (Adrien found out that Tikki hadn't, and he's never known what to make of that).

They could pick a new Ladybug and Chat Noir, but they won't. They won't give this up. They can't give up.

None of them are willing to give each other up.

"Ready for some training?" Dragonbug asks, and Adrien realises her hand is outstretched again, even though he's on his feet now. "C'mon, chaton, let's go let Paris know we're still protecting them."

He takes her hand with a grin, letting the light in her eyes chase away the shadows in his own. He sees her expression clear at the same time and he's grateful all over again that they have each other.

He readies his baton, but she wraps her arm around his waist and swings them both out the window together, giggling as he flushes at her show of strength. It's not like he doesn't know how strong she is, but it's different when she's demonstrating.

And she is _very much_ demonstrating.

Dragonbug swings them both in a wide arc, landing them together two more floors up on the nearest building, and squeezes Adrien tightly in a sideways hug before she lets go and begins to run. She leaps across the gaps between buildings with all the ease and surety that fighting for so long has gifted them, laughing all the while.

And all the while, Adrien is right at her heels.

In a roundabout way it's Hawkmoth's ploy on Hero's Day that had given them this idea.

Paris had mourned so badly at the loss of their heroes that Hawkmoth had been able to mass akumatize huge swaths of the city.

(Adrien thinks about that, sometimes, when even Plagg's best attempts can't make him forget how lonely he'd been before this year. Maybe the city would mourn Adrien too, but it wouldn't be the same way as they'd mourned the loss of Chat and Ladybug. The city wouldn't really be reacting to losing _him_ , and to his surprise, on Hero's Day so many of them had been.

Plagg never lets him stay in that kind of mood for very long. Adrien still doesn't know how or when his kwami learned to play the piano. He doesn't care, not when it means he doesn't have to play alone anymore).

Ladybug told him that Tikki suggested that having the heroes visible and well might lift the city's spirits as much as their apparent demise had damped them.

It's hard to tell just how well it's working when Hawkmoth and Mayura have ramped up so quickly, but it is definitely working. People wave and call out to the two of them as they swing and leap between the buildings, racing each other and laughing as the wind whips through their hair, ducking into alleyways and kicking off the walls to roll onto the rooftops just because they can.

Adrien puts on a burst of speed when they hit a relatively straight line across several roofs, diving to all fours and gaining several feet on Dragonbug at once, only for her to shift form into mist and reform ahead of him.

"That's gotta count as cheating," he shouts, veering to the side and springing back to his feet so that they don't crash into each other. He kicks off a chimney to launch himself in front of his partner again.

She laughs, loud and low, and catches him around the waist with her yo-yo and yanks him back beside her.

"Oh?" She purrs up at Adrien while he's still reeling, bringing a rush of heat to his face. Even after spending most of their waking moments this week together, he isn't prepared for the way the teasing tone in her voice has dropped lower than it used to be, grown more serious.

He'd had to tell Kagami he couldn't be in a relationship right now when those first days after Miracle Queen had been eaten into so badly by akuma attacks, and he'd honestly meant it. He really doesn't know how he can manage a relationship when what slivers of unscheduled time he has are spent fighting or training.

But he's not the only one with that conflict. He's been spending a lot more time transformed, but he's also been spending a lot less time locked in his room with no one but Plagg for company.

He doesn't want to admit it to Ladybug, because he can see the dark circles under her eyes just at the edge of her mask, but he's been sleeping a lot better trading turns on rooftops with her than he had been at home, anyway. He'd already tended to do more staring at the ceiling than actual sleeping, and that was before they'd both entirely lost the privilege of uninterrupted sleep. 

He's spent so much of his week with Ladybug. He's not fond of the circumstances that drove them to it, but he can't bring himself to regret it, either. 

They've spent a lot more time simply talking to each other than they've ever had time for before. He knows that Ladybug, too, has had to take a step back from her civilian relationships. 

There's a constant awareness in Adrien now, like an electric current just beneath his skin, that there are things he doesn't think he'll ever share with anyone but Ladybug. They can have entire conversations in quickly exchanged glances in a way he can't imagine doing with anyone else, they know each other's signals and body language like it's their own, and they can lay out plans together without ever having to say a word. There's an awareness all its own between them when they're fighting together, an innate kind of knowledge of their other half's location. 

There's a world of understanding in every fleeting touch and look between them. 

Even before they'd lost their allies, they'd already grown so used to putting their lives into each other's hands over and over again. 

Hawkmoth and Mayura don't have to be present at every battle. They haven't _been_ present since Miracle Queen.

Adrien's spent the past three nights running with Ladybug, and they've spent so much of that time talking when they couldn't sleep. 

They haven't led normal lives since they'd first opened their Miraculous, and for every fight they'd had allies for there'd been dozens more that the two of them had fought alone. They know their battles have changed them. They're too close to see exactly how, but they know they've changed. 

How can they ever expect anyone else to understand them the way they do each other?

(How can he ever love anyone else the way he loves her?)

Dragonbug is grinning up at him now, a dangerous edge to her expression that makes his heart trip in his chest. Her eyes glitter faintly in the dim glow from the streetlights below them. Their city is never truly dark, and especially not to Adrien, but even with as much time as the two of them spend in the shadows on the roofs and in the alleys there's never as much light in their hidden places as there is on the streets below. 

Belatedly, Adrien realises Dragonbug hasn't let go of him yet. 

Wayzz never has explained what exactly all the warnings about using multiple Miraculous mean, except that not everyone can handle the mental strain, that it's too dangerous. 

The odd predatory gleam in Dragonbug's eyes gives Adrien a faint suspicion as to why. 

He's asked Plagg before how much their kwami influence them, how much they influence their kwami. Plagg's never given him a straight answer, but their kwami grant them their transformations and their powers. He and Ladybug are both more than certain that their kwami _do_ influence them. 

And Ladybug- _Dragonbug_ \- has more than one kwami right now.

Dragonbug's voice, dropping to a low purr that Adrien doesn't think even _he_ can manage, captures his attention completely. "Oh, kitty. If you think that was cheating- then what does _this_ count as?"

She leans in, close enough that Adrien's eyes nearly cross as he tries to keep from focusing on the way he's _still_ tangled in her yo-yo, and she presses a kiss to the corner of his lips before springing away again with another, louder laugh.

It takes Adrien almost a full minute to realise her yo-yo string isn't wrapped around him anymore.

It takes him a lot longer than that to shake himself out of his daze and chase after her again.

It takes about thirty seconds after _that_ for her yo-yo to tangle around his legs and send him crashing to another roof. 

Dragonbug lands lightly beside him this time. He hears her muffled snicker as he starts to push himself carefully to his knees and the line tightens again, sending him sprawling right back to the roof. 

Adrien turns his head enough to give her a dirty look, feeling his ears go flat in a combination of emotions he's not willing to examine too closely. 

Dragonbug only reaches out and gently ruffles his hair behind his ears, stifling another snicker as Adrien's eyes slide halfway shut and he struggles and fails to suppress a purr in response. 

"Sorry," Dragonbug says, a little sheepish, a lot amused, as she pulls her hand away.

She doesn't bother to stifle a third snicker when Adrien can't keep himself from chasing after her touch. 

His purr rumbles deeper as soon as her hand makes contact with his head again. This time Dragonbug doesn't just ruffle his hair, she buries her hand in it and scratches at the base of his ears instead, and Adrien sags bonelessly back to the roof. 

"You can get back up, you know," Dragonbug says, and her voice is nothing but warm amusement now. She presses harder on a spot just at the edge of his left ear as she says it, though, and getting back up is definitely not on the table at the moment. "I took my yo-yo back a minute ago, Chat." 

Adrien tries to answer her and only purrs harder, pressing into her hand. He tries again and manages to rumble out, "I think you've made your point, my Lady." 

"And what point would that be?" She doesn't stop scratching, though, and when Adrien turns his head enough again to catch her expression he's suddenly sure she knows exactly what she's doing. He doesn't know if it's knowledge from Tikki or Longg or even Plagg, or from all of them somehow, but he sees enough of the wicked gleam in his partner's eyes in that brief glance that he's _sure_ she knows what she's doing.

That doesn't mean he wants her to stop. 

But he _does_ want to answer her, and by now he's a little paranoid at the lack of akuma as well, so Adrien props himself up on his elbows as best he can and tries not to tilt his head too obviously towards Dragonbug. She not only hasn't taken her hand away again, she's leaned forward to splay her other hand across his shoulderblades, toying with the fine hair at the nape of his neck in a way that very nearly sends him right back to the roof. 

Again. 

"You've won," Adrien says, muzzily, turning his cheek just enough to nuzzle into Dragonbug's hand. She lets him, which he's distantly surprised about. He knows she said she'd had to give up on having anything with her civilian boy, whoever he is, but Adrien hadn't expected that to translate into- into whatever this is, instead. 

She knows that he doesn't have anyone else anymore, either. They've spent enough nights guarding each other's sleep, on rooftops or in one of Paris' parks or in bridges on the Seine, that they've talked through all the things they've been steadily losing over the past week as Hawkmoth and Mayura grow more and more bold. 

Sleep is so far from the only thing they've both lost. 

"What makes you think _that_ was my point, kitty?" Dragonbug asks him, leaning forward over his back as she does, balancing there with her free arm braced across his back. Adrien _had_ been thinking about trying to get up again, but when she slides closer yet he lets himself fall into her instead, draped across her lap. 

She not only lets him, she tugs him closer, letting out a sigh of her own that's so quiet that he feels it before he hears it. He feels better for hearing it. He might be taking an alarming amount of comfort from her presence, but at least he isn't the only one. 

"Because you _did_ win," Adrien says, fighting to keep from sounding sleepy now. He's tired, but he also thinks it's his turn to take first watch. 

Dragonbug doesn't seem willing to let him, and he can guess why, but he does think he's supposed to. 

He only hadn't woken her for her turn at watch the night before because she'd looked so exhausted. He wonders how she's hiding the circles under her eyes during the day. He knows she has them- he knows his own are getting harder and harder to hide, but he can at least excuse his with being overworked. 

Though he's seen Nino's expression when he uses that excuse. He might not want to use it again in his best friend's earshot. Ever, possibly. 

"Winning was never my point." Dragonbug smooths her hand across the top of his head, pressing his ears flat for an accidental moment before lifting her hand to let them flicker back upright. It's an odd sensation, but not necessarily an unpleasant one, even if Adrien knows he'd be upset if anyone but his partner tried it. He's learned by now that he doesn't like anyone but her touching his ears at all. For all that they're obviously leather and metal, there's a sensitivity to them Plagg's never clearly explained. Sometimes he's not sure that Plagg knows, because he thinks this is something Plagg would tell him if he could. 

In a moment of clarity Adrien thinks guiltily of Wayzz, waiting for them back at their inadequate hiding place. They'll have to start sleeping there if they can't come up with anywhere else to hide the Miracle Box, but right now he can't imagine moving from their current rooftop. 

He's more comfortable, too, with the stars and sky over them rather than the apartment's crumbling roof and cracked walls. He doesn't know if Ladybug feels the same way, because that's one of the vanishingly few things he hasn't admitted to her. 

Dragonbug curls her hand gently around the side of his cheek, turning his head enough for his eyes to meet her. "Kitty?" 

Adrien purrs at her, curling further into her lap and letting his tail flick once against the rooftop. He stills and then curls his tail around himself when the buckle clanks sharply against the roof, sounding too loud in the dark. "My lady?" Drowsiness colours his voice now, no matter how he tries to keep it back.

"My point wasn't winning," Dragonbug reiterates, leaning closer. She doesn't move her hand, resting against the curve of his cheek so gently. When he breathes out her fingertips just brush the edge of his eyelashes, making his eyelids flutter. "My point was that I want you _at my side_ , Chat Noir." 

He settles at that, because he can't not. He's in her lap, with her guarding him in the dark like he had for her the night before, and unlike all the times before when she's tried to stress to him that she does need him, that she does want him as her partner, this time it sinks in like a stone dropped into a silent pond. It leaves little ripples of emotion in its wake, joy and wonder and relief and gratitude and a little bit of lingering fear that she could still come to regret it. 

"Wayzz," he tries, aware that it must sound like a jarring non sequitur to her, but slightly desperate now for a distraction from his racing emotions. "Y-you told him we wouldn't be long."

In reply Dragonbug gently moves his head again, ducking down until her breath ghosts over his cheek. Adrien's eyes slide shut only to fly back open when he feels her press her mouth against his- quickly, there and gone in a moment's time, but she-

Ladybug definitely just kissed him.

He stares at her, half-illuminated in the distant glow of the street lights below, one side of her more obscured than the other even to his sight.

"I did tell him I wouldn't be long," Dragonbug says, amusement threaded through her words in a way that sends a shiver down his spine, before taking a deep breath and adding, "Longg, Tikki, divide."

She'd told Wayzz that she wouldn't be long. 

Wouldn't be _Longg_.

Adrien's heart thuds painfully as he wonders how long she's been planning this.

Longg takes one look at them and forgoes his usual rambling style of speech, in favour of telling them both, "I will keep watch." 

Adrien doesn't say anything, afraid to break the moment. Right now he's irrationally worried that he's breathing too loudly, that the hitch of his increasingly unsteady breath will be enough to break the moment on its own. For all that they've been skirting the subject for days, he wasn't actually ready for this. 

They might have already figured out each other's identities. They've grown too careless about leaving each other clues the past week. They've helped each other too often, with homework and excuses and alibis, and they've confessed too much to each other in the dead of night while they try to catch what sleep they can. 

They might know.

They might not.

Secret identities didn't protect their allies. 

And it's their turn to make the rules.

"Tikki." Ladybug doesn't look away from him at all. "Tikki- spots off." 

(He's thought for most of the week that she has to be Marinette, but that doesn't do anything to diminish his rush of joy at learning he's right).

**Author's Note:**

> title is a hundred per cent an 'everytime we touch' reference, yes
> 
> i am team 'can we give rose and juleka miraculous _please_ '


End file.
